Friday, March 26, 2010

SDTW Presents Townes

I do not make it a secret that I believe Townes Van Zandt to be the best song writer of all time.

Discovering music like Townes is what makes music so good.

Wikipedia summarizes Townes pretty succinctly:

"While alive, Van Zandt was labeled as a cult musician: though he had a small and devoted fanbase, he never had a successful album or single, and even had difficulty keeping his recordings in print. In 1983, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered his song "Pancho and Lefty", scoring a number one hit on the Billboard country music charts. Despite achievements like these, the bulk of his life was spent touring various dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms, backwoods cabins and on friends' couches."

In short Townes' life was dark, painful, and tragic. I like to think his songs are warnings to those who might choose to make the same choices in life he had. His tales are of hardship, women, alcohol, wandering, and death. He pretty much covers all the bases on the harder parts of life.

I decided to put together a playlist of 12 songs that I took from 5 Townes' albums. They range from acoustic to Delta blues types, but they are all Townes and all very good.

I made sure "Waitin' Around Die" was the first song you hear. It is the first song of his I heard and it was the first song Townes ever wrote. It is hauntingly appropriate considering who the man was that sang it.